Year 73, Beginning of Summer
Loki, somewhere on the Northern Continent
Alex wiped the sweat from his forehead and replaced his hat. He hefted his rucksack and headed back to his mobile lab. As much as he hated to admit it, summer was here and soon he would have to return to Alpha for the season. Not that he wouldn’t mind eating Dinah’s cooking again. His wife of nearly fifty years was undoubtedly one of the best cooks on Alpha. She had a flair for it. But for most of the last decade they had led separate and independent lives, coming together again only when Loki’s weather became too hostile for him to endure.
He hadn’t tried to spend an off-season on Loki; although his old friend Davey Kano had ridiculed him for the need to return to Alpha. Davey, among others, had a passion for the planet and they preferred to barricade themselves underground here on Loki rather than return to Alpha during the summers that were too hot to bear or the winters that were deathly cold. But Alex couldn’t bear the thought of being on his beloved planet without being able to see the sky or smell the fresh air. He’d rather watch it from afar from Alpha’s observatories and utilize the time to organize his research from the past season. Now in his seventh Lokian year, he was comfortable with the decade long pattern of life on—and off—Loki.
It would be good to see Dinah again. He hadn’t seen her in nearly a year, at the wedding of one of the grandchildren. She had insisted that he attend, and he had enjoyed seeing his offspring who had gathered for the occasion. Most of the grandchildren had come, and several nieces, nephews, great-nieces and nephews had been there as well.
As he approached the modified Eagle, something moved in the bushes ahead of him, then bounded into the pathway.
“Cat! Well, where have you been lately? I haven’t seen you for two days.” The large yellow tabby cat rubbed against his legs, butting his head against Alex’s calves. “I’ll bet you’re hungry. You know, after several generations of cats on Loki, I would have thought you would stop hunting for meat. There just isn’t any here.”
The cat led the way home, tail stiff, walking with an independent but businesslike gait. Alex had always been fascinated by animals. He had been amazed and pleased when his sister had returned from an unexpected trip to Earth with a cat for him. It still amazed him that she and Alan had made no effort to return with any other sort of animals other than the fertilized eggs that had hatched into chickens. The seeds and supplies they had brought back were quite a boon, but a wider variety of animals would have been spectacular.
Cat bumped his head against the door to the Eagle and paced impatiently as Alex touched his slate and opened the door. Alex put down his pack and carefully stored his specimens before responding to the cat’s unspoken but obvious request for supper. He requested music from the computer as he fixed the cat’s dinner, then his own dinner. He would spend the hottest part of the day indoors, then venture outside again as the sun went down. There was one more test site he wanted to check before he moved on.
Alex had spent the last three decades comparing the growth of terrestrial plants with lokian plants during the temperate seasons. He had a wide range of test sites at remote parts of the planet in a half dozen different climates. He knew he could have sent someone else out to check the sites and report back to him, but this was what he loved to do, so he stubbornly did it himself.
Ten years ago, Dinah told him she had had enough tramping around the dusty smelly planet and he could get along without her there. He didn’t eat as well, and didn’t do his laundry as regularly, but he got along fine, and she had plenty of other interests to keep her busy with grandchildren and now great grandchildren to make clothes for and cook for. Whenever he returned to Alpha they settled back into the routine of husband and wife with ease. Her hair might be gray and thinner now, but he still adored her every bit as much as he had when they were teens.
He was startled out of his reverie by a chime he didn’t hear often. There was a priority message coming in over his slate. When he was out on a site it was rare for him to receive any calls, much less a priority call. He touched the screen, accepting the call. A close-up of his eldest son appeared on the screen.
“Deep! How are you son?”
“Hi Dad. I’m fine. You’re on the north continent right now aren’t you?” Deep Koenig at fifty-two looked much like his grandfather. His dark hair was just beginning to show a few gray streaks. He also had his grandfather’s intense blue eyes and shared a similarly hawkish nose. Deep had been Cadmin for Loki for nearly a decade, a position he took very seriously. Alex could tell that he was making this call from the Cadmin’s office.
“Yes, right on the equator and about two hundred miles inland. One of the upper level temperate zones.”
Deep shifted impatiently, body language indicating to Alex that he wasn’t all that interested in the climate there. Alex smiled. So like his grandfather. Just stick to business and to hell with anyone else’s interests. Alex’s father had been a good man and Alex never doubted his love, but he was always so busy that there was never time just to talk about things you were interested in. Other than the survival of Alpha, Alex had no idea if his father ever had any other interests. Deep was just like him. “I need you to check something out for me. About seven hundred miles to the north of you on the coast is a small tree plantation. It was just established last fall.”
Alex nodded. “Wasn’t Charles assigned to that one?” Charles was Deep’s youngest son.
“That’s right. Charles and his wife Natasha are the caretakers. We haven’t heard from them and there’s been no answer to any of our signals. We need to send someone in to check on them and you’re the closest. Right now everyone else is busy with harvests and getting things shut down and secured for the season.”
“How long have they been out of communication? Since the trees were harvested? They weren’t planning to stay the summer were they?” Alex remembered that station; it was small as tree plantations go; only about forty square miles of forest. He had helped with the planting.
Deep looked embarrassed. “The trees haven’t been harvested yet. And they’ve been out of touch much longer than that. We haven’t had any word from them since planting at the beginning of spring.”
“Since planting! That’s over two years.”
“Closer to three. Summer is a bit late this year.” Deep looked uncomfortable.
“They’ve been out of touch for most of three years and you didn’t think that odd?” Alex asked, incredulous.
Deep sighed and leaned forward, rubbing his face with both hands. “Alex, don’t try to make me feel bad about this. I already feel bad enough about losing touch with my own son. The plantation just fell between the bureaucratic cracks.” He sighed and looked up again. “It turns out that the custodian always schedules harvest. Charles never called in and we never noticed. You know how he is sometimes. Everyone in the family just thought he was keeping in touch with someone else. We all thought he was doing so well, but something has gone wrong. Dad, please go check on him.”
Alex wanted to ask more questions, but at this point it wouldn’t matter. He nodded. “All right. I’ll go this afternoon. I’ll contact you as soon as I know something.”
With a sigh and a shake of his head he prepared to leave. There was no telling what he would find. Charles and Natasha might be perfectly fine. Or there could have been some sort of accident and Alex would be too late to do any good.
Charles was Deep and Maya Koenig’s fifth and youngest child. In infancy he had been a beautiful child with thick dark curly hair and deep brown eyes. As he grew they began to notice differences. He never made eye contact. He didn’t always respond to sounds, or to the family as a baby normally would. He didn’t seem to recognize others, or respond with affection to anyone. Maya Souad had been afraid that Charles was deaf, as she was, but tests proved that wasn’t the case. Charles was a good baby. He didn’t cry much, or make a fuss about anything. But he just didn’t seem to develop the way the other children did. He was late to sit up, late to crawl, late to walk. The doctors agreed over and over again that he wasn’t physically incapable. He just didn’t seem to feel the need to pay attention to the world around him. When he was still in his crib he would move onto his knees and rock back and forth. Sometimes Deep would find him banging his head against the crib. Deep would move him and he would continue to rock.
Things didn’t get out of control until Charles was two and truly began to walk. He still didn’t speak, although he did occasionally hum monotonously. As he began to walk he seemed to develop an obsession with pushing buttons. He would seek out keypads and keyboards, choose one button and push it over and over until someone literally picked him up and moved him away from it. They were living on Alpha at the time and Maya lived in fear that the little boy would somehow manage to walk out an airlock. With four other children under the age of ten she was frantic that she would lose track of him and he would hurt himself.
The diagnosis of autism gave them a name for Charles problem but little treatment. The literature, what little they had, didn’t seem to offer any explanations on why autism occurred or how it could be treated. Maya and Deep tried to cope, but the older the child became, the less they could control him. And with four other little ones to deal with, they were at their wit’s end.
Crystal and Evan Pulcher volunteered to take their nephew’s child. Their own children were all grown by that time and Crystal felt that the isolation of Morrow Forestry Center might offer some respite for Charles from the busy environment of Alpha. It was peaceful there, and Crystal could give Charles more individual attention.
Her patience and the attention Evan was able to give the child saved him. By the time Charles became an adult he could care for himself and function on his own. He still had days when obsessions overcame him, but Crystal and Evan had taught him well how to overcome the worst behaviors. He preferred to be as far from other people as possible, and when at Dover or Alpha he was given monotonous, repetitive tasks which suited him perfectly. During the last harvest of fall he had been eighteen. He spent time at Dover with Evan and Crystal and was assigned the task of sorting potatoes and other vegetables. He was very good at it. Natasha Sanderson, granddaughter of Greg Sanderson through his son Jimmy was assigned similar duties. Natasha was a quiet girl who tended to be overweight and a loner. Complications during her birth had caused mild mental retardation. She also excelled at monotonous and repetitive tasks, and required extra help when trained for any task. She could read only slowly, and everything must be explained to her over and over.
Charles took her under his wing. Repeating instructions was right down his alley and the two became fast friends. As the season closed, Charles went to Evan and Crystal and insisted that he and Natasha wanted to be married. Crystal considered their idea carefully, determined that it might be for the best for both of them and championed their cause with both sets of parents. Neither Deep and Maya, nor Jimmy Sanderson and his wife Natalie Devers were happy about their ‘special’ children suddenly deciding to take on the commitment of marriage. Charles and Natasha were patient and determined. Crystal suggested that they undergo genetic evaluation. They agreed and Evan took them to Alpha to have the detailed round of genetic tests done. When the results were returned that they were genetically compatible and neither contained any lethal recessive genes, their parents reluctantly agreed, providing the young couple spent the winter in Dover, close to both sets of parents where they could be watched and help received if necessary.
By the end of winter it was obvious that Charles and Natasha Koenig were a devoted young married couple. They didn’t spend a lot of time socializing with any other than their immediate family, and even that contact was minimal. It took effort on the part of others to understand the couple and most people were too caught up in their own lives to make that effort. Both liked working in the greenhouses that provided food for the community. Charles also helped with the tree seedlings that were being grown in Dover’s greenhouse by the thousands. His Uncle Evan was in charge of that and quiet patient Evan was still Charles’ favorite person. Evan suggested that Charles head up the new small plantation. It would be good experience for him and he was well suited for the task.
Also during the winter, Natasha became pregnant with Charles’ child. Their parents spent most of the pregnancy worrying about whether the child would be normal and whether Charles and Natasha would be able to handle raising a baby. To Alex’s knowledge, Crystal never doubted that they would be fine, but his son was extremely concerned. As usual, Alex spent the winter on Alpha and only received occasional calls and slatenotes from his son over Charles ongoing situation. But he backed his brother Evan when Evan declared that Charles could handle the tree plantation. He didn’t actually see Charles’ family until he helped with the plantation. He remembered Natasha to be quiet and shy and intensely proud of her little girl.
The baby was named Constance and Charles proudly introduced her to her great-grandfather. She had thick curly dark hair that reminded Alex of his sister Emma. Her skin was darker though, much like her grandmother Natalie’s. She had big dark eyes that were so dark that the whites of her eyes looked a bit yellow and it was difficult to distinguish between the iris and the pupil. She had been just learning to walk and would stand in her playpen and play peek-a-boo with her great-grandfather, peering over the edge then ducking back down. It was Constance who was most in his thoughts as he prepared to lift off and head for the tree plantation.
It was late afternoon when he landed the Eagle at the plantation. He had flown over the trees which appeared to be healthy and thriving. This area had mild weather and depended on a large river that drew on a huge area of the continent for its water. Mountains to the west prevented most severe storms, and there were no large bodies of water nearby to induce convection thunderstorms. Since there was always plenty of rain and storms in the mountains to the west, runoff remained steady while rainfall was on the low side. The runoff would last until the hottest part of the summer and the native plants here were some of the most lush on the planet. The trees also thrived here, mostly fast growing pines, although they had planted a hundred acres of an oak tree that seemed to be doing quite well. These trees needed to be harvested soon. It would be a shame to waste so much in needed resources.
Facilities here consisted of two small utility huts and a well-made stone house with a tile roof. The stone insulated well, allowing early habitation in spring and remaining comfortable into summer without using much energy. Unlike Morrow and Dover there were no caves here to utilize. The two-story house had a slate roof and a flat deck off the second floor over top of a workshop/garage space. Everything seemed to be closed up tight. Alex left the Eagle and looked around.
There was no sign of people at all. He called for Charles and Natasha, but the call echoed around the deserted buildings with no results. With a sigh he headed to the house. Inside everything was as neat as if someone had packed up to move away. The first floor was one large room with a staircase on the right side of the front door. The kitchen was in the far left hand corner. There was nothing on the table or counter in the kitchen. A desk with communications panel yielded no information. Kitchen cabinets held sealed packs of food and dishes, but nothing fresh or spoiled.
He opened the refrigerator. It was in working order but there was nothing inside. It was spotlessly clean. Could they have gone to Morrow or Alpha without Deep knowing about it? Alex didn’t think so.
Upstairs were four small rooms and a bathroom. All were as neat as the downstairs had been. A few jumpsuits were hanging in the closet of one bedroom. The drawers held underwear, socks, t-shirts and shorts in sizes for both Charles and Natasha. The bathroom held the usual personal items, all in their places. Everything had a coating of dust on it as if it had been ages since anyone had been here. A second bedroom had a small crib, a box of toys suitable for a toddler, all neatly packed away, and a dresser full of baby clothes. There were several sizes of clothes in the dresser. Charles and Natasha would have packed plenty of clothes for the baby to grow into. That was common practice among people who would be in remote stations during a season. Several of the little sundresses were embroidered and in bright colors. He could imagine Maya Saoud and Natalie helping Natasha choose clothes for Constance and packing them up. But they held no clue of the family’s whereabouts now.
The other two rooms had been used as storage rooms and there were boxes of supplies neatly arranged and ready for use. Alex frowned. From what Deep had said, they had never asked for any supply shipments or for the trees to be harvested. Certain drygoods had to be replaced, such as flour, sugar and salt. Charles had shown him an extensive garden when Alex had been here before. He had intended to grow most of the food they would eat.
Alex headed downstairs to check on the garden. He should be able to tell quite a bit by the state it was in. He left the house through the front door and walked up a small rise. The garden had been on the other side of this little hill, sloping down to a creek that would provide water through a solar powered irrigation system.
At the top of the hill he found the grave. It was set off by a ring of flat white stones. The oblong ring of stones was just the right size for a person to lie down inside. He looked around. Down the hill toward the creek there was a tangled mixture of overgrown Terran and Lokian plants. Vines from watermelon and squash grew in profusion near the creek. A few blueberry bushes grew together, their stems entwined with a common Lokian creeper vine. No one had tended this garden for a very long time. Alex felt a chill. Who was buried in the grave? Charles or Natasha? Where had the other one gone? And what about the baby?
He turned and strode quickly down the hill. He needed to call Deep. As he opened the door to the Eagle his puffball Puff moved out onto the landing. “Hey Puff. What’s up?” Alex had been talking to Puff since the day he found him when he was thirteen. Puff didn’t talk back, but Alex always had a feeling that Puff understood him and supported him in whatever endeavor was at hand. Right now he felt something different.
Puff seldom seemed to need anything other than to be near Alex. Alex had never hesitated to take him anywhere. It had been a teenage Dinah who had fashioned a net backpack for the puffball so that Alex could take him everywhere. Puff moved down the stairs, his short wiry ‘hair’ moving in an undulating pattern that pushed his round body forward. “Where are you going?” Alex called. He didn’t really expect a response and didn’t get one. Sometimes when they were on Loki Puff would wander away for a while. He never went far, and was always available whenever Alex was ready to leave. In fact, he seemed to know when Alex was ready to leave. Alex never had to go looking for him or chase him down. The thought of chasing the slow-moving round animal was ludicrous. Alex shrugged and headed inside. He left the door open and Cat bounded past him as well.
Alex sat at the desk and turned on the communications panel. In a few moments he had conveyed what he had found to his son.
“Right now, you need to get a team up here to harvest these trees. They’re in beautiful shape.”
“I’ve been putting a team together. Most just got in from other stations and were looking forward to a few days off, but we need to get this started. They’ll be there by tomorrow morning. They’re good people, and know we’ll have plenty of down time soon. Will you keep looking for Charles or Natasha?”
“Son, I’ll keep looking, but chances are slim that we’ll find them. No one has been at the house for a long time. Over a year I’d say, maybe longer. I think we need to exhume the body out there to find out which one it is.”
Deep sighed and nodded. “I’ll talk to Maya and Natalie and Jim. Perhaps Jim and I should come up there. What about the baby? Any sign?”
Alex shook his head. “It could be that the grave holds one of them and the baby as well. I just don’t know.”
“Will you… take care of it?” Deep asked hesitantly.
“I’ll do that. I’ll start tomorrow. And I’ll help with the harvesting too, as long as I’m here. I only had one or two other sites to check before heading to Alpha for the summer.”
“Thanks, Dad. Keep me posted, okay?”
“I will.”
Alex moved to the small kitchen and took out a bottle It was very good Alphan vodka and he used it sparingly, but tonight he needed a drink. He sat on the steps of the Eagle and watched the sun set. Cat returned as the stars were coming out. Puff did not. He left the door open in case Puff returned in the middle of the night. Puffballs were the only animal ever found on Loki, so Alex never hesitated to leave the door open. Nothing would come in.
His sleep was interrupted by dreams of Charles and his family. Memories welled from his subconscious and blended Charles with his uncle, Alex’s son Owen. The dreams were full of the Loki leeches that had been found by Owen when he was a child. Owen’s muscles were permanently damaged by the leech and he still walked with a limp. In Alex’s dreams he saw the leeches on Charles and on the baby Constance. It wasn’t a pleasant night’s sleep. By dawn he was sitting on the steps again, sipping coffee.
He watched the tree harvesting team arrive. It consisted of three heavy-duty Eagles, each towing a truck fitted to cut the sapling trees and strip them of their branches. The branches and leaves would be collected and cut into chips that would be taken to Alpha to make paper. The saplings were now used in all sorts of ways, making furniture, tools and other items that had been made of plastic when Alex was a child.
The Eagles placed their burdens carefully on the ground then moved off a short way to set down the pods containing the work crew. Then the skeletal Eagle moved yet again to land, ready to be outfitted to haul logs.
Alex watched the process with interest. The team of pilots was obviously well skilled. The work crew was leaving the transport pods as the Eagles landed and heading for their vehicles. The pilots jumped from the command pods to the ground. Most immediately began rigging their ships to carry logs back to Morrow for processing. The Morrow Caverns were home to more than a hundred people now who would craft the wood into needed items over the summer.
One pilot jumped down from his Eagle, waved and strode purposefully forward. Alex recognized his nephew immediately. Preston Carter at 54 was an exact duplicate of his father. His energetic movements and easygoing personality sometimes caused Alex to feel he was seeing a ghost. Alan Carter had not only been his sister’s beloved husband and his father’s best friend, but his own mentor as well. Of all Alex’s nephews and nieces, he was closest to Preston. He stood to meet Preston as he crossed the clearing.
“I didn’t expect you to be leading the team.”
“Deep was very persuasive. Insistent really. The rest of the crew knows what to do. Deep wants me to help you take a look at that grave.”
“I still can’t believe they let this go on this long.”
“I talked to Nat before coming up here,” Preston said. Natalie, Deep and Preston had all been close friends growing up. “She said that Natasha wasn’t much good at slate notes. The effort to read or write them frustrated her greatly. So she wasn’t surprised that she didn’t get any mail. Charles rarely noticed anyone else but Natasha and the baby, but would occasionally contact his mother, or more frequently Crystal or Evan. So Nat felt that no news was good news and was concentrating on her own life. She’s been up to Alpha several times to be with Hilly while she was so sick last year, and she has two other grandchildren both out at Sauique that have taken up a bunch of her time. Deep and Maya both thought they were probably communicating with Natasha’s parents or the Pulchers. Crystal has been pretty distracted with Evan’s heart condition. Evan hasn’t been exactly happy to be spending so much time on Alpha during the past year. Evidently he’s as rotten a patient as Granddad always was. So they didn’t really notice that Charles wasn’t communicating with them. What’s a real shame is that we all relied so much on the caretakers of the various plantations to call in for supplies. Deep is working on correcting that for next season.”
“That’s good to hear. I guess we’re going to have to dig up the grave first of all.”
Preston nodded and motioned the way.
They found shovels in the tool shed and headed up the hill. They dug together quietly for more than an hour as the early summer sun beat down on them. They could hear the sound of machinery from the other side of the house as the team began harvesting the trees.
Preston pulled a kerchief from his pocket and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He fanned himself with the wide brim hat that provided shade for ears and neck. He squinted in the bright sunlight and pulled sunglasses from one of the many pockets of his baggy pants. He had already stripped down to a mesh tank top, his skin darkened by many days in the sun. He leaned against his shovel. “I saw Dinah last month when I made a run up to Alpha.”
Alex kept digging. He had already donned sunglasses and knew this task would only get harder. “Oh really?”
“I was surprised you weren’t already home.” Preston stuffed the kerchief back in his pocket and went back to shoveling.
“Still had a few sites to visit. The readings I get at this time of the year are crucial to my studies. How was she?”
“Doing well. Said she hadn’t heard from you in ages, but wasn’t surprised by that. I guess after fifty years she isn’t surprised by anything you do.”
Alex grinned and glanced at his nephew. “Probably. We do get along, Pres. But we’ve always had different interests. I’m looking forward to going home in another week or so.” To change the subject he asked, “When are you going home? Aren’t they just about ready to batten things down for the year?”
“They are, which is why Deep was so anxious to get us out here and get everything harvested. But I’m spending the summer in Dover this year.”
“You’re kidding. You’ll hate it. Two years with no flying?”
“Selena wants to be close to her family, with the baby coming and all. After all, she is a Kano, and you know they’re all a little wonky over Loki.”
Alex shook his head. “I know that. Davey reminded me of it when he called to complain about your marriage to Selena.”
“He called you?” Preston stopped working again. “To complain about me?”
“Keep digging or we’ll never get this done,” Alex growled. “He called me. I let him rant for a while and told him what I thought about it.”
“We’re both adults,” Preston said, digging with renewed vigor. “He doesn’t have any right to complain. Nutty old fart.”
“Selena is his favorite granddaughter, and he does care about her. Besides he’s not a nutty old fart because he’s old. He’s always been nutty on certain subjects. Has he bothered you about it?”
“Hasn’t said a word.”
“Good.”
Preston sighed and stood again. “Alex, I am a good husband. I know I gained quite a reputation when I was younger, but Buffy and I settled our differences long ago and had a good marriage. Well, a good marriage for twenty years, then two years of hell while the cancer killed her.”
“I know, I know,” Alex said, glaring at Preston until he started digging again.
“I hated like hell being alone. And Selena and I are a good match.”
“I just can’t believe you’re starting another family.”
“I like kids. And Selena doesn’t have any yet. She’s excited about the baby. It’s a girl, by the way.”
Alex smiled. “You’ve always been partial to daughters.” Preston had three daughters with Buffy as well as one son. He also had two daughters on Loki during the years he spent shuttling cargo back and forth between Alpha and Loki. He had been a devoted father to all of them. All were grown now with families of their own. Preston had first noticed Selena Kano when she had participated in Emily Carter’s wedding. Emily was Preston’s youngest, and had married a young agronomist shortly after her mother’s death. Selena was a nurse and already scheduled to move to Alpha for several months of advanced training. By chance, Preston was the pilot for her flight. Rumor had it that she moved into his apartment as soon as they reached Alpha, and when she returned to Loki six months later, Preston re-arranged his work assignments and moved to Loki with her. They were married the week they returned to Dover. Alex knew all about this. He kept close tabs on his favorite nephew and he had visited Preston and Selena’s home the last time he had stopped in Dover to re-supply.
“We’re both looking forward to it,” Preston said with his usual enthusiasm. “Sel is gathering up baby clothes and decorating the nursery. I’m going to keep the baby when she goes back to work. I’ll be watching Emily’s two as well while she works.”
“Sounds like a madhouse. I’m glad it’s you and not me.”
“You used to enjoy being around kids. Heck, Alex, when we were growing up you barely took two steps without at least three of us with you.”
“You were all older than that. When you were little Di and your mum and dad wiped noses and changed nappies. I played basketball.”
Preston grinned and continued to shovel. “Alex?” he asked after a pause.
“Yeah?”
“Mum would have married someone else if she’d lived and Dad had died, wouldn’t she?”
Alex dug for a while before responding. He thought about his lively younger sister, who would always remain in her twenties in his memories. She would probably have spent some time test driving every available male on Alpha, but she would have hated being alone. “She didn’t like being alone either, mate.” That term Alex had long ago picked up from Preston’s dad. He and Preston had both picked up a number of speech patterns from Alan Carter, unlike Preston’s younger brothers who were barely able to talk themselves when they lost their father. “She would have missed him for the rest of her life—hell, I still miss him—but she would have found someone else pretty quick.”
“I miss him too,” Preston said quietly. “Both of them.”
There wasn’t anything to say to that. Preston seldom spoke of his parents’ death, or his grief, although Alex knew it was always there, causing just a bit of tension behind the younger man’s easy-going demeanor. And he had always hated being alone. That was what had led him into a relationship with a girl on Loki while married to Buffy, who had always lived on Alpha. Rumor had it there had also been someone on Ceres II as well.
Preston had been discreet at first, but then Lily >>> became pregnant. Preston openly admitted that he was the father. Buffy had been furious, and her family even more so. They let it be known that they would never trust Preston again, and never forgave him. It had ruined any political ambitions Preston had, but didn’t seem to effect him any other way. Lily had a second child by Preston the next season. Somehow Preston convinced Buffy not to divorce him. Alex never learned how he managed that. Preston changed jobs to remain on Alpha after that and even had the two children live with him and Buffy on Alpha once they were of school age. Preston and Buffy’s youngest daughter Emily was born after his two children by Lily. As long as Preston remained on Alpha, he seemed to have no trouble being faithful to his wife. But he had been unable to cope with being alone.
It had not surprised Alex that Preston had married again quickly after Buffy’s death. He was also not surprised that the bride was much younger than Preston. He would need someone young and lively to keep up with him, and after all, his father had been much older than his mother
They dug together in silence for a while. The soil was rich and heavy here. There were rocks scattered through it and Alex knew the rolling hills around them were caused by glacial remains that had deposited a mixture of rocks and topsoil. They stood waist deep in the grave without finding a thing.
Preston took a drink from the canteen hanging at his waist and passed it to Alex. “This must have taken Charles ages.”
“How do you know it was Charles?”
Preston shrugged. “If something happened to Charles, Natasha would have called her mom and asked what to do. Natasha needed someone to tell her what to do. If something happened to Natasha, it wouldn’t occur to Charles to call anyone for help. I don’t think it would occur to him to call anyone for anything. I still can’t believe that Deep let him maintain the plantation on his own and didn’t plan any supervision at all.”
“I think he overestimated what Charles was capable of.”
“He always has. I don’t think Deep ever really understood what autism was or how to handle Charles. I think he always thought that Charles could be normal if he just tried a little harder.”
“Maybe we all thought that. We were wrong.”
“With tragic results.”
“We haven’t found any bodies yet.”
“We’re going to.”
Preston insisted they dig six feet down. Alex felt that was excessive, but they didn’t find anything before then. Preston argued that Charles could have heard the term ‘six feet under’ and interpreted it as a requirement for a proper burial. He insisted that Charles would have obsessively measured and made sure that the body was properly six feet under the ground.
Alex’s eyes were just at ground level when he stood straight. His shovel hit something besides stone or dirt. As they moved the dirt aside they found the top of a shipping crate. They moved more dirt and were standing on a makeshift coffin fashioned from several shipping crates.
Preston used his slate to call his other team members who arrived with more equipment and they soon had the coffin above ground. It was tightly sealed, stapled around the edges. They examined the staples and Preston took a laser cutter and sliced through the top quickly and easily. They gingerly pried off the lid and peered inside.
The remains were definitely Natasha’s. Although decomposed to little more than bones and a small amount of leathery skin and hair, the body was dressed in a red shermeen-cloth shift. Shermeen-cloth was likely to last longer than the bones. A gold pin in the shape of an orthodox cross was pinned over the heart. A slim gold wedding band gleamed on the bones of the left hand. A small bundle, tightly wrapped in more shermeen-cloth was tucked tightly against the right side with the right arm protectively around it.
“Mother and child?” One of the team members murmured. Alex noted two of the workers crossed themselves. Preston nodded.
Something was wrong. Alex shook his head. “That bundle. It’s too small. The baby was a toddler last time I saw her.” Alex remembered again playing peek-a-boo with the little girl.
Preston touched the bundle carefully. “That feels like a skull. But you’re right, it’s too small. Perhaps, she died in childbirth?”
Alex’s heart sank. That must have been what happened. Natasha became pregnant. Something went wrong and Charles didn’t call for help. He never let anyone know she had died. He never tried to communicate with anyone. But where was Charles? And where was Constance?
Those questions remained with Alex as the team closed the makeshift coffin and respectfully carried it to his Eagle. He would take the body back to Dover when they left. Alex turned his attention to helping the small harvesting team, but he was still concerned about Charles and Constance. Everything was so neat and orderly. It looked as if Charles had done what he could for Natasha, cleaned up everything and just walked away. Where would he have gone?
That evening he joined the others for dinner. Usually a camp dinner with a group of harvesters was a lot of fun, with several bringing along musical instruments to play after supper and a card game to join in, but tonight, the mood was somber and Alex excused himself after he ate and returned to his own Eagle.
Puff didn’t return that night either, or the next night. In two more days, they would have the small forest harvested. Late in the afternoon Alex and Preston took one of the small two-wheeled ATV’s out and rode the perimeter of the plantation. As they reached the north side, they came around a bend and Alex shouted for Preston to stop. They had been proceeding uphill for a good while and only Preston’s excellent reflexes kept them from going over the cliff edge.
The ATV fishtailed as Preston braked and they slung gravel over the edge of the cliff. They could hear the small rocks pinging down the face of the cliff over the quiet sound of the little motor. They stopped and looked out over the cliff.
“Thanks for the warning,” Preston said, looking at his uncle.
“I’d forgotten that the river cut into the hills through here,” Alex said quietly. He swung out of his seat and looked at the view. It was spectacular from here.
The flood plain extended to the north and the river meandered lazily along it. Rolling hills stretched to the east, the remains of ancient glaciers, and the river lost itself in the moraine. The trees grew tall here and had been planted almost up to the edge of the cliff. To the north and west, a range of mountains extended in the distance. They were the purple haze of a mirage from this view, but a particularly tall mountain, straight to the west could be made out in great detail, its top still snow covered even at this point in the season.
Preston climbed off the bike as well. He took in the view and turned to look at the trees. This was the northern end of the small forest. The trees were well formed and tall here. They had grown well in this soil and were straight and healthy. This was one of the small areas of oak. They were slower growing than the more popular pine trees, but would supply good hard wood. He was no botanist himself but knew they were no longer quite the same as a Terran oak tree. They would never have grown to these heights, nearly twenty feet high, in such a short period of time. Alex and his colleagues had done some genetic tinkering to produce a faster growing tree. A trace of unexpected color caught his eye and he moved down the row of trees.
The view was even better from this particular point. Facing northwest, toward that highest mountain, Preston found Charles’ body.
“Alex!”
Alex turned from his survey of the plains below and followed Preston farther up the hill. He knelt beside the remains of his grandson, never doubting that this was Charles. There was a small gold band on the left ring finger, matching Natasha’s. A wide brimmed hat, made from several layers of Shermeen flax, adorned the skull, and it was clothed in standard issue workshirt, shorts and boots. His slate was still attached to his belt. It was turned off. The devices were designed to be tough, but this one had been out in the weather for some time. Alex carefully removed it from the body, wrapped it in a specimen bag and placed it in his backpack.
Preston stepped back and called his team on his own slate. He asked them to prepare another cargo container to act as a coffin and bring it up here. Then he began to look around for the third body. The child would be unable to survive out here for long without her parents. Loki might not have hostile animals, but there were plenty of plants that should never be eaten, and it would be difficult for an adult human to find enough sustenance here. A child would never manage alone.
Alex stood and walked to the edge of the cliff. Preston noticed this and joined him, peering over at the drop of nearly a hundred meters.
“What is it?” he asked. Alex appeared to be listening to something.
Alex cocked his head. “I need to get down there.”
“Down there? Why?”
Alex frowned. “Puff is down there.”
“Your puffball? Why the hell is he down there? How did he get there?” Preston peered over the cliff then along the cliff face.
Alex shook his head. “Rolled, walked. It’s odd Preston. I’ve never ‘felt’ him quite like this before.”
“What do you mean?” Preston had his own puffball. Most of the Koenig family had them, and others on Loki and Alpha did too. Preston’s puffball was back aboard the Eagle.
“You know how usually they give a bit of emotional feedback? Like they’re mirroring what you’re feeling?”
Preston nodded. It wasn’t mirroring, exactly. It was more like they absorbed some emotions. Puffballs seemed to bond with a specific individual. His grandparents had shared a puffball and it had seemed to somehow link their emotions, but for the most part, a puffball was for one person alone. Telling your troubles to your puffball somehow seemed to make them less. During those first few months after Buffy died, Preston had relied on the puffball’s companionship and empathy to absorb some of the emotional pain. He couldn’t explain it, but he knew it had helped.
“These aren’t my emotions I’m feeling. Puff isn’t happy, but I don’t know what it’s about.”
“And he’s down there somewhere?”
“We’ve got climbing equipment in the storage compartment, don’t we?” Alex indicated the ATV.
“Just the basics. A couple of ropes and belts.”
“That’ll do.” Alex headed over to fetch the equipment.
“Why can’t we just take the ATV and circle around?”
“It’ll take us most of a day to head back to the other side of the plantation to where we’re down low enough to cross the river and head back along the flood plain.”
“Then we do it tomorrow. It won’t matter whether we get these trees harvested tomorrow or the next day.”
Alex shook his head. “I need to do this now.”
“Jump off a cliff?”
“We’re not jumping off the cliff. Pres, I taught you to repel years ago when you were just a kid.”
“True, with full kits, plenty of free time and safety equipment. Alex, why is this so important?”
Alex was already securing the ropes to the front bar on the ATV. “I’m not sure, Pres; but it is to Puff, and that’s good enough for me. He’s upset about something.”
Preston pulled out a second harness and stepped into it with a sigh. “All right, all right. At least the sun is lower in the sky and it’s not all that hot. I’m not doing this at midday.”
It was still hot. At this time of year it was always hot. But with a breeze blowing along the cliff and the sun low in the west it wasn’t unbearably hot. With each passing day the heat intensified and lasted longer. At least this particular area of the continent wasn’t subject to daily storms as the heat caused convection built thunderstorms. The hot rains at Bedrock and Sauique made for truly disagreeable weather and the high humidity there had made both places unlivable already.
Preston double-checked Alex’s ropes as he had done over the decades they had climbed together and Alex checked his. They both stepped over the cliff with a climber’s cautious confidence. Preston had quietly informed his team leader of their activity. He was wondering if the heat had finally addled his uncle’s brain a bit.
They let themselves slowly down the rock face and Alex stopped about halfway from the top.
“Well?” Preston asked.
Alex looked to the left and right and held up his hand to forestall any further talking. He was listening again. “We need to go that way.” Alex pointed to his right.
“We need to go that way?” Preston echoed, incredulous. “And how do you propose we do that?”
“Not far. We can do it,” Alex said, toeing his way along the cliff to his right.
“Not bloody far,” Preston muttered. “I feel like I’m caught in some weird Loki version of a Lassie movie. ‘What’s that Puff? Timmy is in trouble? Take us to him, Puff.’”
Alex smiled and didn’t comment. Preston followed, reluctantly.
“Ah, here it is,” Alex said.
“Here what is?” Preston asked.
Alex placed his hand at the edge of a crack and pulled just a bit farther. He moved around the rock and vanished. Above, Preston could see Alex’s rope slipping into a crack. Then the rope went slack.
“Alex? Are you all right?” Now Preston was worried.
“Fine,” Alex called. “There’s a cavern here. It appears to be pretty deep.”
Preston swung over to the crack and peered around it. “Alex, we do not have enough equipment to go spelunking. Let’s just mark where this is, and come back in the morning.”
“I’ve got to find Puff,” Alex insisted. “He’s close by. I’m sure of it.”
“Alex, I swear you’ve gone round the bend. Will you please get back out here?”
“This won’t take long. You stay right there. I’ve got a little pocket torch and I’m just going in a little ways.”
Preston shook his head. Short of knocking Alex out and dragging him away, he knew that Alex was going to do exactly what he wanted. He could be as stubborn as both his parents put together. Preston had been raised by that pair and knew just how stubborn both could be. Preston had also grown up listening to stories of Alex’s antics, and caves figured prominently in more than one of those stories, including the one where he had to be airlifted out of that cave where he had found Puff.
Preston had been griping about his wife’s family and their odd ways. Now it looked like at least one member of his own family was even more nuts than they were. He certainly couldn’t imagine old Davey Kano hanging by a rope off the edge of a cliff waiting for someone to explore a strange cave.
Alex’s footsteps crunched against the gravel floor of the cave. He shone the tiny light around the room and found an opening to lead him further into the cave. He pulled a grease pencil out of the pouch on his belt and drew an arrow on the wall at shoulder level. He knew he should wait for more equipment before exploring further, but the tone of Puff’s thoughts drew him in.
Puff wasn’t so much thinking as feeling. Alex had no illusions that Puff was a sentient creature. He was an animal that responded to certain stimuli, and one of those stimuli had always been human emotions. Rarely had Alex picked up emotions from Puff as he was doing now. Puff was unhappy, or disapproving, or uncomfortable, and urgently so. Alex also felt a strong pull, as if Puff needed him. Puff had always been there for Alex, and he had always known that somehow Puff had ‘chosen’ him many years ago in that cave on the southern continent. In that same way he now knew that he had to find Puff.
Alex moved with great caution, stopping every few feet to mark the wall. The roof of the cavern closed in, and soon the ceiling was low enough that Alex had to stoop to keep going. He was spiraling slightly downward, and there had only been two branches. He hadn’t hesitated at either spot, somehow sensing where Puff was and how it would be easiest to get to him. He curved around and the ceiling disappeared from above him. His flashlight showed that the tunnel had widened out into a cavern. He frowned. This sort of structure did not match the geology of the area. The cavern didn’t appear to be carved by running water. The sides were smooth and regular, but the rock was not volcanic in origin.
There was a shuffling off to his right and he turned his light in that direction. The cavern absorbed the light and he couldn’t see more than twenty feet away from him. He marked the wall again and headed toward the noise. He had gone no more than twenty steps when he encountered Puff. He knew it was his own puffball, and not another one, not by sight, but simply by the bond between them. He sighed, but said nothing out loud. Puff rolled away from him and Alex followed. The comment that Preston had made about Lassie made him smile, but he knew Puff needed him to follow.
Alex continued making marks on the wall, and Puff led him around a curve and the ceiling began to slope downward again. There was quiet shifting ahead, and Alex knew they must be close to one of those spots where Puffballs tended to cluster. Over his lifetime he had found about a half dozen spots scattered around Loki like this one. The first he found by accident when he was thirteen. He had not found another until he was nearly thirty. At that time he brought home Puffballs for Preston and his own kids. Dinah had not been particularly happy about becoming a four Puffball family, but he knew how to handle Dinah.
His light fell on a pile of puffballs. He knelt slowly and looked at them. He had seen puffballs cluster together, but never heap themselves on each other like this. Puff rolled up to him and leaned against his knee. He leaned down and caressed his little friend. “I wish I knew what you wanted, Puff,” he said quietly.
Whatever it was, it was here. Usually, when he found a group of puffballs in the wild and Puff was with him, there were some who wanted to roll up to him, to feel him, and others simply ignored his presence completely. He could only read the emotions of Puff, and could still tell that Puff was not happy. He inched forward and the other Puffballs seemed to shrink from his presence. Puff rolled forward and pressed against the closest one. Alex began to talk softly and soothingly as he would to a scared child. He inched forward until he was next to Puff.
There was a movement in the center of the pile of puffballs. Alex moved the light, uncertain of what he had seen. The light glinted off of something that was not the wiry ‘fur’ of a Puffball. He moved the light again and leaned forward. This time he saw an eye. He paused with amazement. It took him a moment to realize who this was. It had to be Constance.
“Constance?” He asked softly. “Constance, it’s Grandpa Alex. Do you remember me?”
He reached slowly into the mass of Puffballs, stroking each one he touched with the same affection he always showed Puff. “Constance? It’s time to go home. It was good of the puffballs to take care of you, but you need to come home with Grandpa Alex now.”
There was a bit of movement. Alex wondered how long the child had been on her own. A year? Two? He tried to remember if she could talk when he last saw her. He didn’t think so. And she would have had no one to talk to here. He had no doubt that the Puffballs had kept her alive for all this time. “Constance? Come on out to Grandpa Alex now. Your grandmas and grandpas back at Dover are going to be so happy to see you. Remember playing peekaboo with me?”
Alex covered his eyes with the one hand that wasn’t holding the tiny light, then he pulled his hand away from his eyes and said softly, “Peek a boo. Now you try it.”
He waited, shifting slowly so he couldn’t see her eye any more then he swayed back into her view. “Peek a boo, I see you Constance.” He smiled at her and talked softly to her. He was terrified that he might scare her and she might run. If he lost her in these caves, he might never find her again. He swallowed back his fear and continued to play peekaboo, hoping she would take a bit of initiative and move from behind her protective wall of Puffballs. He sat tailor fashion on the floor, making himself more comfortable.
It seemed like forever before Constance leaned forward just a bit as he called peek a boo. He smiled at her and told her what a good girl she was, encouraging her as much as possible. They played peekaboo again, with Alex covering his eyes again and opening them to see Constance’s round dark face peering at him. He smiled and she smiled back.
“Come here, sweetheart. Come give Grandpa Alex a hug.” Alex gambled that she might just do it. He opened his arms and she crept shyly forward through her protectors. Puff was pressed against his knee. He glanced down at Puff, trying to send the emotion of thankfulness to Puff, and through Puff to the others. The tiny child put her arms around Alex’s neck and he engulfed her with a gentle protective hug. “Oh, Constance,” he murmured. “You don’t know how glad I am that you’re alive.”
Her hair was long, reaching down to her waist, and it looked as if it had never been combed. She wore nothing. Her tiny body was skinny and fragile looking, but not malnourished. The Puffballs had taken excellent care of her. Her skin was dusty, but not caked with dirt. Puff and all the other puffballs he had known had always been clean creatures, and it seemed that they had kept her clean as well. She smelled like the musky scent of Puffballs and the caves they inhabited.
Arms firmly around her, and her arms firmly around his neck, he moved to stand. She weighed next to nothing. He looked down at Puff. “If she has a particular Puffball of her own, Puff, bring him along. We’ll need to leave soon.” To Constance he said. “Do you remember how to wave good-bye? You used to do it.” He pantomimed the motion. “Say goodbye to your friends?”
She shifted in his arms and waved goodbye with him, then held him tight and looked over his shoulder as he turned and made his way from the cavern.
“Preston?” Alex called. “Preston, I’ve got her.”
“Her?” Preston asked. “Puff?”
“No,” Alex reached down and grabbed the rope, clipping it to his belt again. “Constance. I’ve got her. She was with a group of puffballs.” He turned to the child. “Hold on tight, sweetheart.” He held her close and stepped back out of the cavern, blinking in the bright light. Constance quickly tucked her face against his collar.
“My lord!” Preston exclaimed as Alex came into his view with the child clinging to him.
It was growing dark. Alex had been in the cave for nearly an hour. Preston had already used his slate to call his team. He had been on the verge of following Alex into the cave, as soon as his people brought the proper equipment. He looked up as Miguel Martinez peered over the cliff. “Mick. Pull Alex and the child up as fast as you can.”
Miguel nodded and vanished. There was a tug on Alex’s rope and Alex held the rope with one hand and walked up the cliff, leaning against the tension on the rope. Miguel helped him over the edge of the cliff, and tried to take the child, but she clung to him like glue.
Alex peered over the edge. “Pres, bring up the Puffballs.”
“Puffballs?” Preston asked.
“Puff and the one that’s coming with Constance. They should be just inside the cave.”
Preston looked up at his uncle and sighed. “Send me down a pack to put them in.”
In short order the pack was sent down, the puffballs loaded and all were back above the cliff. Alex set off in one ATV with Constance and the puffballs and Miguel Martinez driving. Preston remained behind with the others to bring back Charles’ body.
Constance was content to watch the others from Alex’s arms. She observed everything with her wide solemn eyes, and said nothing. Miguel winked at her but with a glance from Alex didn’t try to touch her or talk to her.
The others followed quickly and soon all were back at camp and dinner was prepared. Miguel’s teenage daughter Marion was part of the crew and she brought one of her smallest t-shirts and tried to coax Constance from Alex’s arms. Constance wasn’t ready for more socializing, so Alex thanked her for the shirt and headed for his Eagle to wash Constance up.
With some sort of odd psychic support from the two puffballs, Alex got Constance washed up and the t-shirt on her. They showered together and as soon as they were both clean and dressed, Alex sat down at the communications panel and Constance crawled back into his lap. She was still looking everything over when Alex placed his call to Deep.
“Look what I found!” Alex said with quiet enthusiasm.
“Sweet Mother of Jesus,” Deep swore, then he crossed himself. “Constance!”
Alex turned her around. “Say hello to Grandpa Deep, sweetheart.”
She stared at the screen without comprehending what she was seeing.
“Is she all right?” Deep asked.
“As good as any child could be who’s spent the last couple of years with a group of puffballs. She’s going to need a lot of help socializing and learning how to speak. She’s a bit behind on those skills.” Alex had done quite a bit of study on education and learning disabilities when he was drafted to coordinate the school on Alpha while his children were little. “Physically, she looks to be in good condition.”
“How soon can you get her back here?”
“Deep, I’m going to take her home with me to Alpha. She already seems to trust me, and I think it’s best if she stays with me.”
“Alex, she’s not some kind of pet---“
“Of course she’s not,” Alex snapped. His easy-going manner vanished and his manner became much more like his father’s. “She’s a little girl who has lost both her parents and lived in total isolation for the past few years. I’m not going to get her out of that cave then just dump her. It could have horrible psychological effects.” Constance may not have understood the words, but she definitely caught the tone. She hid her face against Alex’s chest. Alex stroked her thick dark hair. That would have to be cut soon just to rid her of the tangles.
Deep looked chastened. “I’m sorry, of course you don’t think of her that way. But don’t you think she would be better off with someone…” he hesitated.
“Younger?” Alex asked, the anger passing quickly. Constance peeked up at him and he gave her an encouraging smile. It suddenly hit him that he had been on the other side of this argument. “Deep, I happen to be exactly the same age as my mother when she took in Preston and the twins.”
Deep nodded reluctantly. “Are you going to come by here before you head to Alpha?”
“I don’t think so. Not unless Constance panics when we lift off. If that’s the case, we’ll come to Dover and talk Preston or someone into flying us to Alpha.”
“Or you could stay here,” Deep tried one more time.
Alex shook his head. “No, it’s time for me to go home. Your mother will help me with Constance and so will Crystal and Evan.” Constance was watching the speaker where Deep’s voice was coming from. Alex smiled at her, then turned back to Deep. “We also found Charles’ body. I’m sorry Deep.”
Deep paled and nodded. “I’ll tell Maya.”
“Preston’s people will be bringing back both bodies. I don’t think it’s appropriate for Constance to be exposed to that.”
“You’re right, of course.” Deep looked down for a moment, then back up. “Then I won’t be seeing you again until fall.”
“I’d say not. Of course, I’ll keep you updated on Constance’s progress and probably by then she’ll be calling you and talking your ear off.” Alex smiled down at Constance again. She slid off of his lap and settled on the floor next to Puff and the other puffball.
“Good luck with her Alex,” Deep said sincerely. “We’ll look forward to hearing from you. And once you’re on your way to Alpha, call Maya and Nat. Both will rest easier actually seeing her themselves.”
“I’ll do that. Talk to you later.” Alex signed off and glanced down at Constance. He would give Dinah a quick call to let her know what was happening, then fix dinner for the two of them. Boy would Dinah be surprised. He hoped it would be a good thing.
July, 2001
Ellen Lindow